Exhibition will track journey from Liverpool Street to Cambridge – by foot rather than train
Dr Véronique Chance, Course Leader for the MA in Fine Art at Anglia Ruskin, will be live streaming her usual commute from London to Cambridge. But rather than taking the train, she will be travelling the 60 miles from Liverpool Street station by foot.
The Art Language Location exhibition, which is taking place at the Ruskin Gallery at Anglia Ruskin and Gallery 9 on Norfolk Street, begins on 25 January, and keen runner Véronique, who has circumnavigated the M25 for a previous art project, is planning to time her arrival to coincide with the official opening event at 5pm on Thursday 1 February.
Véronique explained: “In a world of mobile technologies, and an interconnected and networked environment, the notion of place is one that is becoming increasingly blurred.
“A place no longer needs to be visited in person, but can be discovered virtually through the use of Google Earth Pro and other electronic mapping tools. And at the same time we can reveal our location, through our mobile devices, wherever we may be.
“But are we sometimes forgetting what it is like to explore a place in person, and navigate and feel the changing landscape on foot? I’m looking at how this experience can be communicated with others, through new technology, and how reliable this actually is.”
Véronique’s journey will be tracked by GPS and images of her surroundings will be sent from her phone to the Ruskin Gallery, where they will be projected onto a physical paper map, allowing visitors to follow her progress. She will be running the route in four stages, allowing time for both her body and her technology to recharge, and various clothing and accessories used during the trip will then form part of the Ruskin Gallery exhibition.
The Art Language Location exhibition also features artists from Italy, Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, while Cambridge artist and former Anglia Ruskin student Jo Miller will be asking visitors to reveal when and where they were happiest. The responses, written on postcards, will form part of the exhibition at Gallery 9.
Robert Good, Chair of Art Language Location and an Anglia Ruskin MA Fine Art graduate, said: “We are delighted to be working with artists from many different countries on a shared project and it is exciting to be bringing such a diverse range of artworks and approaches to Cambridge.
“In the current climate of uncertainty, our exhibition will be a great opportunity to show how art and creativity can be a force for good, connecting people from different communities and sharing experiences across cultures and beyond boundaries.”
The free exhibition “PLACE: Relinking, Relating, Relaying” runs from 25 January until 17 February.
The Ruskin Gallery is open 10am-4.30pm, Monday-Saturday, and further information about Art Language Location is available at https://artlanguagelocation.org/
Image: Clothing and accessories used by Véronique during a previous project, which saw her circumnavigate the M25.